Skip to main content

The dissecting a lesson compendium

The title of this blog sounds like an episode name from The Big Bang Theory, but no, all I've done here is put together in one place a series of blogs I've written over the last two years. These posts analysed specific lessons in detail, as I did in my book Becoming an Outstanding Languages Teacher (2017). I'll give a linked title to each blog before briefly describing it. I hope these might be useful to teachers wishing to develop their planning and pedagogy skills. So here we go:

Exploiting narrow reading texts

This is a resource using the "narrow reading" approach for recycling language. You could use it with an intermediate class (GCSE). it's on the topic "How well do you sleep?" which offers opportunities for some useful communicative exchanges.

A speaking and listening task

This is adapted an example of a lesson from Chapter 3 of Jack C. Richards' book Key Issues in Language Teaching (2015). The original lesson was planned by Diana Croucher, an English language teacher in Barcelona. This could be used with a good intermediate or advanced class and is a good example of the communicative approach at work. Students receive lots of comprehensible input and opportunities to adapt it for their own needs. We refer to it in our book Breaking the Sound Barrier (Conti and Smith, 2019).

Teaching an intermediate level written text

This post is a beginner’s guide about how you might go about working with a written text with low-intermediate or intermediate students (Y10-11 in England). It's not what you should do, just one approach based on my own experience and keeping in mind what we know from research about language learning.

Talking about a family

This is a French resource with a lesson sequence and comments based on the topic of family. It would suit a class of reasonably motivated near-beginners who have already done some groundwork on family vocabulary. You could use it as an introduction to the topic with a high-attaining group. This type of lesson would be typical of the oral-situational approach (adapted direct method) with elements of imaginative storytelling and communicative language teaching. You need to make the language as comprehensible as possible, probably with a little recourse to translation from time to time to make sure this is the case.

Using a set of PowerPoint slides

I wrote this post just after producing for frenchteacher.net three separate PowerPoint presentations using the same set of 20 pictures (sports). It shows a very good way for you to save time by reusing  the same base resource in a number of different ways. I chose 20 clear, simple, clear and copyright-free images from pixabay.com to produce three presentations on present tense (beginners), near future (post beginner) and perfect tense (post-beginner/low intermediate).

A mixed-skill lesson focused on speaking

This one is actually an extract from Becoming an Outstanding Languages Teacher. It breaks down in detail how you might approach an easy intermediate text (the Cinderella story. It includes a precise description of specific teacher-pupil oral exchanges you could use.

Using the relative pronoun "que"

This a lesson sequence based on a PowerPoint presentation which shows one way to "teach grammar". The aim is to get students to practise using que as a relative pronoun, e.g. Les livres que j'ai achetés. This piece of grammar is tricky because in English we commonly use no word at all where French has to use que, e.g. compare with the books I bought. You would probably want to mention the PDO agreement issue here, but with many classes that won't be a priority.

The aim of the lesson is to generate LOTS of meaningful repetitions of que used as a relative pronoun. Students are encouraged to invent their own examples as part of the lesson plan. This sequence uses a sentence builder frame, a game (devised by Gianfranco Conti), paired practice and translations. I have included a set of instructions for the teacher, but you could adapt it as you please. the original PowerPoint is on the Y10-11 page of frenchteacher.net.

20 faits divers intéressants sur la France

this is a lesson based on a captioned video about some interesting facts about France. It's easy multi-skill task with some general cultural knowledge thrown in. You could try this lesson plan with a very good Y10/11 class (intermediate) or advanced class.


So that's it. No doubt I'll be doing the occasional "dissecting a lesson" blog in the future and, as I often say, these are suggestions for going about lessons based on my own experience and knowledge of theory and pedagogy.

Image: pixabay.com

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What is the natural order hypothesis?

The natural order hypothesis states that all learners acquire the grammatical structures of a language in roughly the same order. This applies to both first and second language acquisition. This order is not dependent on the ease with which a particular language feature can be taught; in English, some features, such as third-person "-s" ("he runs") are easy to teach in a classroom setting, but are not typically fully acquired until the later stages of language acquisition. The hypothesis was based on morpheme studies by Heidi Dulay and Marina Burt, which found that certain morphemes were predictably learned before others during the course of second language acquisition. The hypothesis was picked up by Stephen Krashen who incorporated it in his very well known input model of second language learning. Furthermore, according to the natural order hypothesis, the order of acquisition remains the same regardless of the teacher's explicit instruction; in other words,

What is skill acquisition theory?

For this post, I am drawing on a section from the excellent book by Rod Ellis and Natsuko Shintani called Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research (Routledge, 2014). Skill acquisition is one of several competing theories of how we learn new languages. It’s a theory based on the idea that skilled behaviour in any area can become routinised and even automatic under certain conditions through repeated pairing of stimuli and responses. When put like that, it looks a bit like the behaviourist view of stimulus-response learning which went out of fashion from the late 1950s. Skill acquisition draws on John Anderson’s ACT theory, which he called a cognitivist stimulus-response theory. ACT stands for Adaptive Control of Thought.  ACT theory distinguishes declarative knowledge (knowledge of facts and concepts, such as the fact that adjectives agree) from procedural knowledge (knowing how to do things in certain situations, such as understand and speak a language).

La retraite à 60 ans

Suite à mon post récent sur les acquis sociaux..... L'âge légal de la retraite est une chose. Je voudrais bien savoir à quel âge les gens prennent leur retraite en pratique - l'âge réel de la retraite, si vous voulez. J'ai entendu prétendre qu'il y a peu de différence à cet égard entre la France et le Royaume-Uni. Manifestation à Marseille en 2008 pour le maintien de la retraite à 60 ans © AFP/Michel Gangne Six Français sur dix sont d’accord avec le PS qui défend la retraite à 60 ans (BVA) Cécile Quéguiner Plus de la moitié des Français jugent que le gouvernement a " tort de vouloir aller vite dans la réforme " et estiment que le PS a " raison de défendre l’âge légal de départ en retraite à 60 ans ". Résultat d’un sondage BVA/Absoluce pour Les Échos et France Info , paru ce matin. Une majorité de Français (58%) estiment que la position du Parti socialiste , qui défend le maintien de l’âge légal de départ à la retraite à 60 ans,